Statistics on Abandoned Children

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: care for the orphan." James 1; 27

Over 400,000,000 abandoned children live on their own on the streets of hundreds of cities around the world. They subsist hand to mouth. They struggle to just survive the day.

Orphans in Myamar during the civil turbulance in the late 2007. John was one of the few Americans who stayed behind to care for them.

UNICEF defines an abandoned child as one who:

Does not know where his or her next meal is coming from.

Does not know where he or she is spending the night.

He or she does not live with either the mother or the father.

While defining a problem is helpful, no definition illustrates the plight of abandoned children as clearly as the following set of statistics:

Every 2 seconds, a child becomes an orphan.

Every 14 seconds, a child is orphaned by AIDS.

1,000,000,000 of the world's families live on less than a dollar a day.

Authorities estimate that child pornography is a $20 billion a year industry; too many abandoned children end up as victims of this deviant activity.

UNICEF estimates that nearly 1,000,000 children enter the sex trade every year.

Experts also estimate that nearly 10,000,000 children are working as prostitutes, with nearly 90% of them girls.

According to the World Health Organization, malnutrition is the single biggest contributor to child mortality rates worldwide.

Many street children use a number of inhalants (glue, gasoline, lighter fluid) and illegal drugs (marijuana, cocaine and heroin).

Street children are routinely detained illegally, beaten and tortured and sometimes killed by police in some countries.

Tragically, less than 1/10 of 1% of Evangelical resources go to reaching, rescuing and making disciples of these children. And yet, it was Jesus Himself who said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." - Matthew 19:14 (NIV)

Dozens of times, the Bible commands us to ".care for the orphan" and "Care for the fatherless." If we don't reach out to them, who will? Instead of asking, "Why me?" try asking this instead: "Why not me?"

"A Father to the fatherless.is God in His holy habitation." - Psalm 68:5